Next Step for Anirban Lahiri, India’s Top Golfer: U.S. Debut

DORAL, Fla. — First came Jordan Spieth, who won his first PGA Tour event as a teenager. He was followed by Patrick Reed, 24, who became the youngest winner of a World Golf Championships event here last year. Last month, Brooks Koepka, 24, won the Phoenix Open, and Daniel Berger, 21, lost in a playoff on Monday in the Honda Classic.

Need further proof that professional golf’s youth boom is in full flower? Meet Anirban Lahiri, a 27-year-old from India who will make his United States debut this week at the Cadillac Championship at Doral.

Lahiri, the No. 1 player on the Asian Tour, has four victories in the past 11 months, including the Malaysian and Indian Opens. At No. 35 in the world, Lahiri is two spots ahead of Brandt Snedeker, once fourth in the world.

Lahiri is also ranked higher than major winners like Louis Oosthuizen, Jason Dufner, Webb Simpson — and Tiger Woods, whose brain he picked when Woods played an exhibition in India.

“You couldn’t help but be inspired by things he did when we were kids,” Lahiri said of Woods, whose confident demeanor left a lasting imprint on the younger generation.

“I’ve always believed that I can win, and I’m glad that it happened,” Lahiri said Wednesday, adding, “It’s time for me to take the next step and prove that I can compete, contend and maybe even win events like this.”

Nick Price, the International team captain for this year’s Presidents Cup, has been following Lahiri’s progress with great interest. Lahiri is positioned to become the first Indian player to compete in the biennial event, in October in South Korea. “Looks like he can make a big putt on a big occasion,” Price said, adding, “He’s very calm, collected, and I think he’s going to be an asset to our team.”

Lahiri did not have to blaze a trail to get here. The path he traveled was plotted by Arjun Atwal, who in 2010 became the first player from India to win a PGA Tour event. Before Atwal there was Jeev Milkha Singh, the first Indian to participate in the Masters. Singh climbed to a career high No. 29 in the world rankings in March 2009.

Great things are expected of Lahiri, who is getting a head start on his predecessors. Atwal was 37 when he won the Wyndham Championship, the same age as Singh when he crashed the world top 30.

“I would never put myself ahead of them,” said Lahiri, who recounted a conversation he had with Atwal during a tournament last year in Japan.

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Lahiri playing last month. He said he first played golf just to spend time with his father.CreditAzhar Rahim/European Pressphoto Agency

This is what he said Atwal told him: “You know, we have done all these things that everyone looks up to. You have the opportunity to do that at 27, 28. We did it at 35, 36. So you’ve got that much more time to outdo us and outdo yourself.”

Lahiri was moved, and motivated, by Atwal’s words. He said he wanted to create a ripple effect that created greater participation in the game and higher expectations. “I’m getting the opportunities at a much younger age than they did, and for me, that is the greatest gift: time,” Lahiri said.

He added, “So how I utilize that, how I capitalize on that opportunity, is critical for me personally in my career, but also for someone to have that is great for golf in India, as well.”

India has fewer golf courses than South Florida does, and many of them, Lahiri said, were built for the Army. Because his father is a military doctor, Lahiri had access to courses that otherwise would have been off limits to him.

“I think one of the issues in India, there’s not as many courses as America; it’s not as public a sport,” Lahiri said. “And yeah, a lot of the credit for my exposure to the game goes not just to my dad but also to the armed forces.”

Lahiri was drawn to the game because it was a chance to spend time with his father, Dr. Tushar Lahiri, a recreational player.

“I would just go out there and I would go pick up golf balls for him, and we would go chip, putt for 15 minutes because it was getting dark,” Lahiri said. “That’s how it all started.”

When he took up the game, he was 8 years old. He had the impression that no other children played the sport.

“I was the only person on the golf course who was under the age of 30,” Lahiri said, adding: “Then I played a junior event when I was about 12. That’s the first time I saw kids my age play.”

The tournament, Lahiri said, was held at Royal Calcutta Golf Club, and the fairways were the most pristine he had ever seen. “I had always teed the ball up two inches in the air because that’s the kind of grass we had on the Army courses,” he said.

Lahiri said he finished fifth in the eight-player field.

“It was fantastic,” he said. “My dad, he’s always been very inspirational. He said to me, ‘Look at it this way: doesn’t matter how you play; you’re going to have the opportunity to play four days on such a beautiful golf course, which you won’t get otherwise, so why don’t you just enjoy yourself?’ I think that’s the same attitude that I keep with me.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B14 of the New York edition with the headline: Next Step for India’s Top Golfer: His U.S. Debut. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe